Three people were killed Tuesday afternoon after a wreck occurred on I-35 near Waco, Texas. According to reports, six total vehicles were involved: two passenger cars and four 18-wheelers.
Police reported that one of the truck drivers had a blown tire that led to the crash. According to that driver, before he knew it his truck was covered in flames.
Harry Turner, one of the truck drivers involved, stated that “I was looking out the mirror and I heard (a noise), it hit the other two cars behind me, and he [truck driver behind Turner] slammed both of those cars into my trailer.”
One of the drivers of the four 18-wheelers, as well as a female and a child or pre-teen in one of the passenger cars, were killed. Those individuals have not been identified. The deceased truck driver had reportedly been driving a fully-loaded trailer filled with gravel.
Witnesses stated that one of the passenger cars had been smashed in between two of the 18-wheelers, and that an explosion resulted shortly afterwards, and one of the trucks was entirely engulfed in flames.
Emergency crews were on the scene through the night in order to clean up the wreck and repair an overpass that was severely damaged in the crash. The intersecting overpass on Valley Mills Drive was initially reopened hours after the crash, but pieces of the bridge started falling off. TXDOT officials then closed that overpass, resulting in hours of traffic backups.
Source: http://www.wfaa.com/news/three-killed-in-multi-vehicle-crash-on-i-35-in-waco/455840789
http://www.kcentv.com/traffic/18-wheeler-fire-shuts-down-i-35-northbound-in-bellmead/455795470
http://www.kwtx.com/content/news/Major-accident-shuts-down-I35-in-Waco-433896663.html